34-2 



CALENDAR. 



But they found that the heliacal risings of this 

 brilliant star; were advancing ut the rate of a day 

 in four years ; which, in the course of a century, 

 would inuke a serious derangement of dates ami 

 culeulutions. We do not know when the year was 

 first known to be six hours more than three hun- 

 dred and sixty-five days in length. Platp is said 

 to have learned it from the Egyptians, but if they 

 knew it, they do not seem to have known how to 

 apply their knowledge, so as to remedy the trouble 

 which arose from the unequal length of the years. 

 This shows the wisdom of Moses in supplying a 

 practical remedy for a defect, which there was not 

 science enough in the world to repair. 



We think that even a child may be made to com- 

 prehend what this difficulty is. It made precisely 

 the same difficulty in the year, which a clock going 

 too fast would make in a day. But what would the 

 person who had the management of such a clock, 

 do with it ? Probably, if he found it was an hour 

 too fast, he would have the wit to put it back, and 

 make it go through another hour before he would 

 consider the given hour as come. This is just 

 what Moses did : when he found that the passover 

 was coming a month too soon, he put the calendar 

 back, and made it go through another month, before 

 he called it the beginning of the new year. 



Attempts were made by some ancient nations, 

 to divide the difference between the lunar and solar 

 years: some of these attempts may be traced 

 among the Egyptians. Thus, the lunar year being 

 three hundred and fifty-four days, and the solar 

 three hundred and sixty-five, they considered the 

 year as consisting of three hundred and sixty days, 

 to make no mention of fractions. This luni-solar 

 year was more than five days longer than the lunar 

 year, and as much shorter than the year as mea- 

 sured by the sun. But this was too fast ; and if 

 the new year came five days and a half earlier 

 every year than in the last, the months must soon 

 cease to correspond to the seasons, and in less than 

 half a century, the winter months must change 

 places with those of summer. Professor Playfair 

 remarked, that this fact would explain a difficult 

 passage in Herodotus ; the historian said that, in 

 the time of the ancient Egyptian kings, the sun 

 had twice risen in the place where it had formerly 

 set, and twice set where it had formerly risen. By 

 this he supposes it was meant, that the sun had 

 gone twice through all the signs of the ecliptic; 

 and that the sun had risen and set twice in every 

 day and month of the year. This was eagerly 

 seized by those who are for discrediting the sacred 

 history, to prove that the earth is much older than 

 the account of Moses makes it : but all this might 

 have happened in the short space of one hundred 

 and thirty-eight years ; since, in that period, there 

 would be a difference of about two years between 

 the lunar and solar year. 



Without saying more of the perplexities of the 

 ancients, we will now proceed to give some account 

 of the first effectual attempt made to correct the 

 calendar. It was done under the orders of Julius 

 Caesar, by far the most accomplished and intel- 

 lectual of the class of conquerors to which he be- 

 longs. His victories do no lasting honour to his 

 name : but this enterprise secures him the ever- 

 lasting gratitude of mankind. We do not mean to 

 say that he did this by his own calculations: he 

 called to his aid the best astronomers that the age 

 afforded. Sosigenes is celebrated as the most emi- 

 nent of this number; he saw in the outset, that 



nothing could be effected, without ascertaining, as 

 nearly as possible, the length of the solar year. 

 Accordingly, having ascertained, as he thought, 

 that the earth revolved round the sun in three 

 hundred and sixty-five days and six hours, he set- 

 tled it as a principle, that the months must be so 

 arranged as to fill up three hundred and sixty-five 

 days and six hours, that being the length of the 

 year, without regard to the moon. 



The first thing to be done was, to bring back 

 the equinox to its proper place in March ; in order 

 to do this, he put the clock forward ; he made the 

 year then passing go through two more months 

 than usual, because the festivals then came two 

 months too soon. The year of fourteen months 

 was called the year of confusion. But beside re- 

 storing the equinox to its place, it was necessary 

 to provide for the extra six hours, and as these 

 hours amounted to a day in every four years, he- 

 inserted a day in every fourth year, making three 

 hundred and sixty-six, the same which we now call 

 a leap year. This was done when Caesar was ap- 

 pointed dictator and sovereign pontiff, about forty- 

 five years before the coming of our Lord. This is 

 substantially the same with the calendar now in use. 

 It made the average length of the years three hun- 

 dred and sixty-five days and a quarter, instead of 

 three hundred and sixty-five days as they were 

 before. The extra day was added in February, as 

 it is now. He called it the bissextile; we call it 

 the leap year. 



But with all the pains bestowed at that time 

 upon the calendar, it was not quite correct. Be- 

 fore the time of Caesar, the year had been too 

 short ; be lengthened it by adding six hours ; but 

 this was leaning on the other side, and making it 

 a little too long; for the true year wants eleven 

 minutes and ten seconds of three hundred and 

 sixty-five days and six hours. This, to be sure, 

 is not much, and the error would occasion no in- 

 convenience for many years. It amounted only to 

 a day in one hundred and thirty years, and the ca- 

 lendar of Caesar was in use more than fifteen hun- 

 dred years before it was even detected. At length, 

 in the time of Gregory XIII. a pope of the six- 

 teenth century, it was ascertained by the festivals 

 of the church, that there was some error in the 

 computation of time. On looking into the sub- 

 ject, it was found that, whereas the calendar placed 

 the vernal equinox on the 21st of March, it actu- 

 ally took place on the 10th, so that the seasons 

 and festivals had gone ten days from the place 

 which the calendar assigned them. The difficulty 

 experienced by the church was this. Easter was 

 to be celebrated on the first full moon after the 

 spring equinox ; the calendar placed the equinox 

 on the 21st of March : it really took place on the 

 10th ; now suppose the moon was full on the 20th, 

 what day should they observe? The 20th was 

 before the equinox by the calendar, and yet after 

 it in reality ; if they went by the calendar they 

 must wait for the next full moon, and yet this on 

 the 20th, being after the equinox, was the real an- 

 niversary of the Passover and of Easter. This was 

 a serious thing to a church which attached so much 

 importance to its anniversaries and celebrations. 



But something must be done. And, whereas, 

 on former occasions, they had been obliged to add 

 some days to make out the year, or, as we should 

 say, to put the clock forward, now they were obliged 

 to put it back ; that is, they were obliged to strike 

 out some days to bring back the equinox to thu 21st 



